Chichvarkin Evgeny Aleksandrovich - a well-known Russian businessman, a former co-owner of Euroset. In 2011, Forbes magazine ranked him as the most unusual entrepreneur - eccentric, eccentric and extravagant.
Childhood and study
Evgeny Chichvarkin, whose biography is described in this article, was born in Moscow in 1974. The boy’s father worked first in civilian and then in passenger aviation (40 years of experience). Mom worked at the Ministry of Commerce as an economist and engineer.
In 1991-1996, a young man traded in clothing markets. In parallel, he was educated at the Academy of Management, specializing in motor vehicles. In 1996, Eugene graduated from high school and entered graduate school, having studied there for another two years. Chichvarkin did not defend the thesis. In one of his interviews, he said that he did not even come up with a topic.
Euroset
In 1997, Yevgeny Chichvarkin, together with his friend Timur Artemyev, opened the Euroset company. The idea of opening a mobile phone salon belonged to Timur. Eugene himself simply loved to sell, and the variety of goods did not matter to him. Subsequently, the media wrote about Artemyev and Chichvarkin as co-owners of Euroset. But nowhere was information disclosed on the size of the share of each of them.
Expansion
From the very beginning, Euroset has focused on retail sales. Each year, the company's product matrix gradually expanded. In 1999, large-scale advertising began. But the really rapid growth of the company occurred after the introduction of a new development strategy. The basis was a decline in cell prices. By 2002, the number of outlets increased to 11. Evgeny Chichvarkin opened more than 100 stores. Every year their number is constantly growing. So in 2003, 117 stores were opened, in 2004, more than 800.
From 2001 to 2004, Euroset entered into contracts with vendors and officially became a partner of such brands as Pantek, Sagem, Philips, Sony Erickson, Siemens, Samsung, Motorola and AlGee. Working directly with manufacturers and getting the most favorable conditions during negotiations, the company continues to promote a low-price strategy.
In 2003, Evgeny Chichvarkin was seriously engaged in the development of regions. This led to an increase in economic indicators and business growth in Russian cities. The national retailer in the regional market provided not only a growth in the base of mobile operators and interest in mobile communications, but also contributed to the emergence of real competition, increased professionalism of other retail chains and the creation of jobs.
New round of activity
In early 2004, Euroset launched the sale of DECT phones, MP3 players and cameras. In October, a bond issue worth 1 billion rubles was issued. In the same year, company branches appeared in Kazakhstan and Ukraine. The thousandth anniversary salon of the company was opened in Grozny on December 7, 2004.
The main areas of Euroset's activity are: retail trade in cellular and DECT phones, personal audio, digital cameras and accessories. The company also connected to telecom operators and provided information services. The number of employees reached 30 thousand. Each month, Euroset salons were visited by about 45 million people. In February 2004, Evgeny Chichvarkin received the Person of the Year Award in the category of Director of the Retail Business. Since 2005, Euroset began to cooperate with Nokia.
Scandal
Also in 2005, the company acquired the Voronezh “Salon Chain” and “Techmarket”. This allowed Euroset to become the largest retail company in its segment. Then there was a scandal involving a batch of smuggled phones detained at customs. Law enforcement agencies became interested in the Euroset. Yevgeny Chichvarkin told the media that in this way they are trying to “crush” his company, and all accusations of smuggling are a pure lie. In August 2006, law enforcement authorities closed the case for lack of corpus delicti.
New plans
In 2006, the number of stores reached 3150. And a year later this figure increased to 5156. Communication stores were presented in 12 countries: Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Estonia, Russia, Moldova, Ukraine. Naturally, an IPO was planned in the immediate plans of the company. Chichvarkin also planned to open a hypermarket.
In 2007, many media outlets spoke about Euroset’s intention to acquire its own bank and enter the relevant market. In order to stand out among competitors, Chichvarkin even coined the name "Ebank". Most journalists noted the originality of Eugene.
Searches
In March 2007, the name Chichvarkin was often mentioned in the press in connection with the arrest of Dmitry Sidorov, who headed the Iled M company. He was suspected of tax evasion, and on a large scale. In 2004-2005, Iled M supplied mobile devices and accessories to Euroset. Just at that time, Chichvarkin was a co-founder of the company, and then unexpectedly left it.
In August of the same year, officers of the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs searched the apartments of Euroset workers. Meanwhile, the media information was mixed. Some wrote that the searches were related to the 2005 smuggling case. Others claimed Chichvarkin’s involvement in Iled M. Also, the version of the marketing move was not ruled out when, after the searches, the company announced the suspension of cellular supplies to its stores, thereby stimulating demand for products.
Nevertheless, most experts adhered to the version that searches were a response from security officials to Eugene’s actions. After all, Chichvarkin was in confrontation with the structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. They came to this conclusion after analyzing information from the Kommersant newspaper, where they came out about searches in the Euroset. Also, back in March 2006, the K department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs confiscated a batch of Motorola phones from the company. Euroset filed a lawsuit for unlawful seizure and won. Part of the party was returned, and another officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs destroyed "under the guise of harmful goods."
Company sale
In 2008, Vedomosti published information on the negotiations between MTS and Euroset regarding the sale of the latter. Then the publication provided information on the distribution of shares in the company. Artemyev and Chichvarkin owned 50% of the shares. Also, Vedomosti asked the co-owners of Euroset to comment on information about the likely sale. Both said that was not true.
In December 2008, Chichvarkin sold Euroset to VimpelCom (Beeline) and Alexander Mamut in the ratio of 49.9 and 50.1%, respectively. Including debt ($ 850 million), the transaction value amounted to $ 1.25 billion, and excluding - about $ 400 million.
Criminal case
After the sale of the company, Evgeny Chichvarkin and his wife Antonina left Russia for London. And already in January 2009, a case was opened against a businessman, arresting him in absentia. In March, Eugene was put on the international wanted list. Thanks to the competent work of his lawyers, Chichvarkin succeeded in ending the criminal prosecution. In 2011, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation closed his case and stopped the international search. Eugene Chichvarkin with his wife still lives in London and is not going to return.
